Milling My Putter

[Rourkson]

Hey, New here. 

I have designed a unique putter and I am looking into milling it myself. Thing is, I know nothing about milling. What programs are used? Are there garage shop options that are smaller? How would I begin this process? 

Or.....do people outsource this kind of thing? And if so, how can I protect  proprietary technologies?  

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. 

Roury

[cnosil]

1 hour ago, Rourkson said:

Hey, New here. 

I have designed a unique putter and I am looking into milling it myself. Thing is, I know nothing about milling. What programs are used? Are there garage shop options that are smaller? How would I begin this process? 

Or.....do people outsource this kind of thing? And if so, how can I protect  proprietary technologies?  

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. 

Roury

to use a CNC milling machine,  you would have to develop a CAD image of the putter for it to be milled.   

Yes,  tehre are garage shop hand type mills,  but they are still expensive.   You also have to purchase the material to mill the putter.   

Yes,  people outsource this,  but the cost for milling a single putter is pretty high.

You can protect your technologies by applying for a patent.  

For one off type putters,  people generally find that milling one is cost prohibitive.  

[Grit Golf]

Milling is both difficult and expensive. There are no diy or garage shop options that are cheaper than $3-5,000 (used), in that price range it will be an older manual mill with step motors retrofitted (fussy to run). A commercial setup would be $20-100k. That doesn’t include the cost of tooling (the end mills that cut metal) or any custom work holding or the cost of materials (cutting fluid, steel). It also doesn’t include software, which can be free if you like to tinker or as expensive as the machine.

I have a small diy CNC mill that can cut aluminum. It’s a fun hobby but it takes a ton of fiddling. Operating a CNC professionally is a highly skilled trade similar to welding.

Another thing you may be overlooking is that not only do you need a cad file of the part, but you also need to convert that cad to the “instructions” for the CNC mill (in gcode typically). There is free software that can do that conversion but the free ones require babysitting and or inline editing of the code in my experience. You also have to consider that your putter probably has no “flat” side. That means that the mill has to run at least 2 operations. 1 on the part face up, then the part has to be inserted into custom work holding, and the mill re-zero’ed, and the 2nd operation is then cut face down. If you didn’t design the part with CNC manufacture in mind, it very likely may take more steps than that.

The reason you would get high quotes for low volume is because the machine company has to invest in the work holding, and the “strategy” for how to cut your part with no volume to amortize that cost against.

If you want a steel prototype, find a shop that does steel 3D printing, it will be cheaper (still not cheap). From a materials science perspective the grain structure of 3D printed is every bit as good as forged. If you have a super high moi design (high volume part that would be overweight in steel) that could be made out of aluminum, 3D print the part in pla and cast it in aluminum via lost investment greensand casting!

Best of luck!




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[cnosil]

Milling is both difficult and expensive. There are no diy or garage shop options that are cheaper than $3-5,000 (used), in that price range it will be an older manual mill with step motors retrofitted (fussy to run). A commercial setup would be $20-100k. That doesn’t include the cost of tooling (the end mills that cut metal) or any custom work holding or the cost of materials (cutting fluid, steel). It also doesn’t include software, which can be free if you like to tinker or as expensive as the machine.

I have a small diy CNC mill that can cut aluminum. It’s a fun hobby but it takes a ton of fiddling. Operating a CNC professionally is a highly skilled trade similar to welding.

Another thing you may be overlooking is that not only do you need a cad file of the part, but you also need to convert that cad to the “instructions” for the CNC mill (in gcode typically). There is free software that can do that conversion but the free ones require babysitting and or inline editing of the code in my experience. You also have to consider that your putter probably has no “flat” side. That means that the mill has to run at least 2 operations. 1 on the part face up, then the part has to be inserted into custom work holding, and the mill re-zero’ed, and the 2nd operation is then cut face down. If you didn’t design the part with CNC manufacture in mind, it very likely may take more steps than that.

The reason you would get high quotes for low volume is because the machine company has to invest in the work holding, and the “strategy” for how to cut your part with no volume to amortize that cost against.

If you want a steel prototype, find a shop that does steel 3D printing, it will be cheaper (still not cheap). From a materials science perspective the grain structure of 3D printed is every bit as good as forged. If you have a super high moi design (high volume part that would be overweight in steel) that could be made out of aluminum, 3D print the part in pla and cast it in aluminum via lost investment greensand casting!

Best of luck!




Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

Thanks for adding the additional detail; I knew the basics of why doing one offs wasn’t practical as I have read it before but your
Explanation goes into the realities that I couldn’t recall or articulate.

[Grit Golf]

27 minutes ago, cnosil said:

Thanks for adding the additional detail; I knew the basics of why doing one offs wasn’t practical as I have read it before but your
Explanation goes into the realities that I couldn’t recall or articulate.

I thought you nailed it, I just wanted to add the extra color!

[Rourkson]

Awesome.Thank you all so much for the information. Much appreciated!! 

[jaskanski]

The first thing I would say is if you have came up with something unique, then well done - it's very difficult to come up with original putter designs from the norm. 

Secondly - does it really need to be milled? Milling is simply a process to give a flat surface - some have elaborate patterns which are purely cosmetic rather than giving any real benefit to the golfer. Some allude to enhance topspin etc, but it is a very difficult concept to prove conclusively. 

It's worth noting that Ping literally cast a business out of nothing using a design that was not milled and found it's way into just about every golfers bag in one form or another. Was it any worse for not being milled? Absolutely not - and consequently won many titles worldwide with a very basic design. Even before then, the old blade design or even the good old Bullseye were not milled either. Does the putt get affected by not being milled? Well - I've yet to see the face miss any more putts than pilot error due to it not being 100% flat. I suspect it's a marketing gimmick to add cost to what is essentially a basic design principle.

So if you can get around the fact that it doesn't necessarily need to be milled from a design perspective (unless it's an inherent part of the design process) then you might have an opportunity to scale your concept on production basis. Investment casting is still an effective manufacturing process to build to mass production for example, or if you can hand finish a design to completion without the need for milling with good old-fashioned tools, then you have a justification for charging customers for your time and expertise in your concept design. 

Thinking outside of the box can sometimes lead to products that work and appeal - just ask Ping.